I’ve been meaning to post photos from Saturday in Madison soon… this space reserved.

[Edited Thursday… finally!]

So, after a night of way too much beer…. (and I should note that when I say way too much I mean our tables had 2 pitchers courtesy of Kurt too much which basically went undrunk… undrunken.. undrinked…? whatever. and NOT that I had way too much beer since as most of my friends know, I don’t really drink beer.)

Anyway, after a night of way too much beer for our tables, Moses and I walked to his place (partly alongside Kurt and Josh). When we got there, we were setting up the air mattress and stuff when his roommate entered (about 2:30-3:00 AM) with not one, but TWO women he had picked up or something… they went to his room and he came out to the kitchen to fix up a cocktail once they got settled. While passing us on his way to the kitchen he said something like, “holy shit.” Whispered incredulously. This was a proper time to use “holy shit” if any, I thought. We figured he was implying that he was just about to do what many men fantasize about. Ha.

Ok, so I digress from the trip to Madison. You’re probably more interested in hearing about the arts fair the next day. 😛

After the conference was over, I met up with Moses to drop my stuff off at his place since he kindly offered an air mattress for me to crash on for the night. BTW, ladies, Moses is the man. Guys, you too should know; Moses is like the coolest man in the world.

Anyway, a bunch of folks went off to some party but Moses and I happened to meet up with a guy named Josh Diaz before Moses had to take off for said party. So, I ended up hanging out with Josh, walking around the capitol talking, and having dinner with him at The Old Fashioned.

I forgot to take a photo of dinner, but here’s an image someone else took of the same menu item, The Old Fashioned House Burger. It was amazing. Perfectly cooked medium, with two thick crispy strips of bacon, smoked cheddar (good cheddar–but I’m a cheeseburger snob), and a medium cooked egg–not too runny, not too dry. The egg added a surprising complexity and binding flavor to the whole affair, making for possibly the best burger I’ve ever had. I’ve had egg on burger before, but previously it was greasy as all hell. This time it was fantastic.

The conference itself doesn’t really start until tomorrow, but it pretty much took the whole day to get here, so I’m counting this as part of the experience. I’m typing this blog post while listening to a live free concert at the capitol building in Madison, right outside my hotel window. Apparently, there’s a summer concert series every Wednesday. Tonight’s theme is Russian composers. Freakin awesome.